


pixie-wings and basilisk fangs

by timelessidyll



Series: magic in our veins [2]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Confessions, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, chenle the shapeshifter, initially inspired by a tweet lmao, renjun the necromancer, sicheng gets mentioned, some made up herbs and magical things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-14 23:17:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16050608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timelessidyll/pseuds/timelessidyll
Summary: Renjun looks at the blood beading along the scratches along his arms and curses quietly.“Yixing is going to blow a fuse when he sees this,” he scolds the cat, knowing full well that the cat couldn’t care less.[in which renjun is a suffering necromancer and chenle is a beam of brightness in his life.]





	pixie-wings and basilisk fangs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ritokki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ritokki/gifts).



> i. feel like i could've expanded more on the basis of their crushes on each other but this is fine, ri just really wanted the witch au so i didn't think too hard about it.

Renjun meets the cat behind an isolated supermarket in the middle of nowhere.   
  
It’s a semi-regular trip he has to take to Sicheng to get a few supplies that he can’t find locally, and he’s only stopped for a few snacks for the rest of the drive back. But the sound of a few quiet hisses makes him curious, especially in these strange, deathly empty plains.   
  
He finds it hidden away by a stack of cardboard boxes, snarling at a crow that’s getting too close. The cat’s beautiful, but he frowns at the obvious dried blood clumping its white, brown, and gray hair together. The crow caws loudly when it sees him and flaps its wings defensively, and the cat’s head turns to look at him aggressively. It snarls at him too, but he doesn’t take it very personally. Animals usually like him, but the cat’s legs are obviously too weak to be of much resistance if the way it barely moves at the sight of him is any indication. And he doesn’t see how it’ll be able to take care of itself in the middle of nowhere, so he does the seemingly obvious thing.   
  
He brings the cat home with him.   
  
Not without a lot of shrieking from the crow, because for some reason it was extremely against him picking up the cat, or without getting clawed by the cat. But he perseveres through the stinging in his arms, and once he’s back in his car, the cat calms down. Renjun looks at the blood beading along the scratches along his arms and curses quietly.   
  
“Yixing is going to blow a fuse when he sees this,” he scolds the cat, knowing full well that the cat couldn’t care less. It only licks a cut on its leg and curls into the passenger seat. Renjun shakes his head hopelessly and checks the time on the clock. 5:49. He can still make it before 9 if he doesn't make any stops. "I hope you know how much trouble I'm going to be in thanks to you."   
  
Renjun parks his car next to Yixing's in their driveway and breathes heavily. His eyes are sore from staring at the road, his mind is mush from the stress of focusing, and the cat hasn't stepped yelling since a half hour ago. He's glad he hadn't brought any mandrake root back or they would've shriveled from the cacophony of noise. He checks the time – 8:56 – and checks the windows. The lights of the living room and kitchen are on, but not the study room. Which means Yixing is waiting for him. He exhales, tells himself to get it over, and prepares to receive more scratches from the cat.   
  
Yixing, as expected, is far from happy when Renjun brings in not only their promised batch of pixie-wing flowers but an injured cat.   
  
"Renjun, you can't just adopt every animal you come across!" He doesn't even wince as Yixing greets him, well-accustomed to his lectures. "You don't know who's cat it is."   
  
"I found him at that small town in between Chasist and Polo," Renjun explains as he searches for something to serve as a makeshift bed for the cat. "The pixie-wing flowers, dragon teeth powder, and crysanthe leaves are in the trunk for you."   
  
"You're insufferable," his brother stresses, leaving to get the supplies for his potions. Renjun rolls his eyes and finally decides that he'll just pull out a drawer box and line it with a blanket.   
  
"This is what I meant," he complains, climbing the stairs to his room with the cat in his arms. "I'm always the one to make the 6-hour trip to Sicheng's and he stills finds ways to lecture me." He brushes past a vine of flowers he doesn't recognize, probably another hybrid Yixing developed that he didn't pay attention to the progress of. When he opens the door to his room, he groans and turns back to the stairs.   
  
"Yixing," he shouts, "I was gone for twelve hours, how did you already manage to turn my room into a garden?"   
  
"Sorry! The old growth potion got out of hand, I needed the pixie-wings to develop a new one." Renjun stares at the dragon-eye and yule plants on his bed with dejected defeat.   
  
"Looks like we're sleeping in the living room." The cat mewls and burrows into his arms, digging its claws into his arms. He winces and sucks in a sharp breath. "You're going to be a handful," he mumbles.   
  
He spends some time downstairs putting together the cat's bed, a temporary set up until he can buy a real one, before turning his attention to the injuries it has. He doesn't have much experience with healing spells, but using spells on animals isn't exactly recommended to begin with. He debates whether he should try to bathe the cat, but he remembers they hate water and dismisses the idea. Eventually, it occurs to him that he can dampen a cloth and clean the cat's injuries with it, but even that doesn't go as smoothly as he wanted it to.   
  
"Will you quit yelling," he hisses at the cat, holding it still as gently as he can while it tries to bite and scratch him. "I'm only trying to help!"   
  
"It's a cat, Junnie," Yixing calls from the kitchen, in the middle of heating up dinner. "It doesn't care."   
  
"I would've at least thought it was too weak to resist." He struggles a little longer and gets the largest clumps of blood out, letting go once he's decided his arms have had enough. "I don't suppose you've gotten any better at your healing spells."   
  
"Not a chance." Renjun shudders, already feeling the phantom stings of the antiseptic cream. The cat stares at him, uncaring of how much pain it's bringing him.   
  
"I hope you're proud of yourself." The cat meows mockingly.   
  
He realizes as he eats dinner, scratches washed and wrapped, that he doesn't have proper food for the cat. He pauses putting the chicken in his mouth to look up at Yixing in sudden realization and mild surprise, and he looks back in confusion when he notices Renjun's sudden pause.   
  
"What?" he mumbles around some vegetables.   
  
"We don't have any cat food leftover from Kai," Renjun says. Yixing's face falls into a deadpan stare. "No, listen, we can't let it go hungry."   
  
"I would gladly let the cat fend for itself." He pouts, and it has the desired effect on Yixing. His face twists uncertainly, torn between giving in without another thought and continuing to be against the cat's very presence. Renjun already knows how this will play out; Yixing has never been able to deny him, especially not when Renjun plays the part of an innocent younger brother.   
  
"Please, Yixing?"   
  
Yixing groans. "Fine, I'll buy cat food in the morning. Just give him milk and some cooked chicken tonight." Renjun smiles like a winner and goes back to eating the chicken he'd picked up, satisfied with the outcome. He could worry more about the specifics of keeping the cat in the morning.   
  
Renjun doesn't always wake up screaming, but when he does, he usually has Yixing beside him, telling him that he'll be alright. This time, he wakes up gradually to the worried cries of the cat and the fading image of a mirror showing a knife carving at his face. As the memory fades, Renjun gasps for breath, blinking back his horror and focusing on the cat pawing at his arm, gently this time. It surprises him that the cat, who has been prickly the whole past day he's been taking care of him, is suddenly caring about his nightmare.   
  
Not a nightmare, he reminds himself faintly. A memory. A spectral memory. He doesn't remember touching anything that could have passed the memory onto him, but he knows it must have belonged to the person who died. He quiets his cries, swallowing to ease the ache of his throat, although that only seems to make it worse. The cat continues its concerned meowing, and Renjun absently begins to stroke its back, mindful of the cuts. He can't quite shake the line of red blood circling the woman's throat, though, so he stands up on shaky legs and picks up the cat, who for once doesn't try to cause him trouble. He writes a short note for Yixing to read when he comes back from the store and leaves the house, heading to the other side of town to visit Taeil.   
  
As usual, Taeil's house is brimming with activity. The first thing Renjun hears is Sugar's excited barking, because of course she's already smelled him coming. The cat arches its back in his arms, even though it must stretch its injured back painfully, and Renjun tries to soothe its discomfort.   
  
"It'll be fine," he murmurs. "It's only Sugar, she can do about as much harm as a cooked noodle." He's not sure if the cat understands him, but at least the hissing quietens to a discontented rumble. Sugar greets him at the gate to Taeil's house, and Renjun manages a small smile at the unwavering enthusiasm Sugar has for everything. Alerted by the racket Sugar was causing, the front door opens to reveal Taeil, still dressed in a loose shirt and plaid pajamas. His sleepy expression clears a little when he recognizes Renjun.   
  
"Ah, Renjun." He opens his door wider. "Come in." Renjun detaches himself from Sugar and follows Taeil inside. The cat makes its presence known by wiggling out of Renjun's arms and jumping to the ground, although it immediately collapses from the impact and Renjun has to pick him back up. The cat mewls woundedly, and Renjun tuts.   
  
"You did that to yourself," he admonishes. Taeil raises an eyebrow.   
  
"That can't be a familiar," he says.   
  
"It's not," Renjun snorts. "If it is, it's the moodiest familiar I've ever met." Taeil gives him a smile for his quip. "Where's Taeyong?"   
  
"He wanted to try tending to the garden. I'm waiting for him to yell for help when he can't get the venus roses to open up." Renjun can't help but give a sympathetic shake of his head. Venus roses are extremely picky plants. "Why are you here, though? I thought you'd gotten better at handling it." That reminded him why he came here in the first place.   
  
"I got a bad one last night," Renjun admits. "I don't remember what passed it on to me though, so I was hoping you had a stronger amulet for me." Taeil hums thoughtfully.   
  
"There aren't any amulets that can help you now," he says quietly. "Your awareness and sensitivity are past what a deterrent can help with. You need a protective barrier."   
  
"What does that mean?" Renjun asks with a frown.   
  
"You've gotten better at blocking out the death glows and spectral imprints, but you'll always be susceptible to the spectral memories," Taeil explains, "but you can't hope to block them out with an amulet, which only deters spirits. You need a barrier to physically prevent the memories from taking root in you. Spectral memories naturally want to attach themselves to a living soul." Taeil gets cut off by Taeyong frustratedly calling for him from the back door. A few seconds, he appears, beige pants stained with dirt and green streaks from the plants. The cat shifts in his arms, snuggling its head into his elbow to try and block out the noise.   
  
"Your stupid roses don't want to eat," Taeyong fumes. "I've been trying for ten minutes!" Renjun stifles a giggle while Taeil smiles amusedly.   
  
"I'll take care of them in a moment, Yongie. Let me finish up with Renjun first.” Taeyong blinks in surprise, as if just noticing Renjun was there.   
  
"Oh, hi Renjun. Sorry, I was busy." Taeyong scratches his neck sheepishly, and Taeil shakes his head before disappearing.   
  
"It's okay, Taeyong. I heard the venus roses gave you trouble. You know they're aware of different people's auras and only open for their primary caretaker, right?"   
  
Taeyong narrows his eyes. "Taeil told me exactly none of that."   
  
"I like seeing you struggle," Taeil interjects, appearing again with a bracelet in hand. "You're so cute when you get frustrated about all the magical things you don't understand. Renjun, here's a lapis lazuli bracelet. It'll do the best helping to prevent the memories from latching on." He holds out a hand after shifting the cat onto one arm and takes the bracelet, rubbing his fingers over the smooth stones.   
  
"So I can just wear it all the time?"   
  
"Yup, it's as simple as that. I've gotta go and finish taking care of the venuses though, so if you need anything else," Taeil pats Taeyong's chest and tilts his head expectantly, "Yongie will help you. Bye Renjun, good luck with the half moon!"   
  
Renjun knocks his head with the hand that has fisted the bracelet and groans. "I forgot all about it! I still have to gather some carnations and mint. Sorry, Taeyong, I can't stay."   
  
"That's alright, Renjun. Yixing probably wants you back anyway. Take good care of your cat!" Taeyong calls after him, following Renjun to the front door.   
  
"It's not mine!" Renjun yells as he runs down the sidewalk. He's not sure if Taeyong heard or cared.

 

Renjun thinks about the cat a lot the following day, although those thoughts are interspersed with the question of where Chenle is. Usually, Renjun sees him wandering around with Jaemin or Jisung, talking animatedly with his arms even as he holds two textbooks and his notebooks in his arms. He finds it kind of cute, he’ll admit, and it’s weird not to see him do that. Not necessarily the first time it’s happened, but usually Jaemin ends up telling Jeno and Jeno tells him because he likes to tease Renjun about his not-so-secret crush. Renjun denies it as if his life is on the line, but he really does think that Chenle has the cutest way of talking about something he really enjoys, usually a book he recently read.

 

So he’s a little distracted, he admits that, but he doesn’t think that it’s his fault that he ends up running into someone and falling on the floor. Certainly not his fault that he wasn’t looking right in front him, scanning the halls to see if he could spot Chenle anywhere. Not in the slightest.

 

“I’m sorry, Renjun!” a familiar voice apologizes, and Renjun looks at the person from where he’s sitting and trying to gather himself again. Jisung hovers above him uneasily, waiting to see if he’s hurt in any major way, and Renjun snorts internally at how worried he is. A quick spell will heal a few cuts in no time at all.

 

“No, it’s fine,” he mumbles, holding out a hand to ask to be helped up.

 

“I haven’t seen you in a while,” Jisung says, easily slipping into step with Renjun as they walked toward the English wing.

 

“Define in a while, because I’m pretty sure you saw me in the cafeteria.” Jisung pushes at him lightly as he laughs, and Renjun can’t help the smile that starts to spread across his face.

 

Renjun keys up to ask his question, relaxing his shoulders to seem more casual. “I was wondering if Chenle’s been here at all today. Usually you can hear him across the hall.”

 

Jisung raises an eyebrow. “Uh, actually Chenle and Jaemin asked their mom if Jaemin could drive them up to Sarago. Chenle got… sick.”

 

“Ah,” is all Renjun offers in response.

 

“Why?” Jisung teases, switching from confused to mischievous. “Missing his dolphin laugh?”

 

“If anything, I’m glad he’s gone today,” Renjun says drily, and he thanks the fact that he’s never been a big blusher because there’s no doubt that his cheeks would otherwise look like tomatoes.

 

“Sure you are, Renjun,” Jisung says, shaking his head. Renjun rolls his eyes and bumps Jisung’s shoulder with his own.

 

Two days later, Renjun is in complete distress, which is distinctly unlike how he thought the days to the half moon would lead up.

 

“Yixing, have you seen the cat?” he asks, scrambling through the lower level of the house and searching under everything he could find. Yixing stops messing with his potion for a moment and looks at him lifting up every box in the workroom. He frowns contemplatively.

 

“Not since dinner last night. What happened?”

 

“I can’t find it anywhere!” Renjun said anxiously, running a hand through his dark brown hair. “Do you think it got out?”

 

“It was mostly healed thanks to the healing salve I made,” Yixing points out, “so I don’t think it’ll get hurt too badly again.”

 

“But what if it gets run over by a car? What if it falls in a well? Just because it isn’t our pet doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be responsible for putting it in a safe place. We can’t just let it wander around the city, we have to at least take it to a shelter.” Renjun’s almost in tears now and Yixing’s looking around awkwardly, at a loss for how to handle this. They both know they can’t keep the cat, but at the same time, Renjun’s so worried about it that Yixing almost can’t help himself. He tilts his head up defeatedly and bites his lip.

 

“Fine. We’ll search for it. But,” he says, holding up a finger before Renjun can respond, “if we don’t find it by tonight, you can’t let it mess up your half moon rite. I know you don’t want anything bad to happen to the cat but the rite is more important.”

 

He purses his lips. He knows there’s only so much Yixing will let him do because of his own priorities (number one, always keep Renjun safe, no matter the cost). “Fine,” he concedes. He knows a compromise when he sees it. The tension that leaves Yixing’s shoulders makes him feel the slightest bit guilty.

 

“I can try to cast a searching net for the cat,” he offers, already getting his grimoire out. Renjun winces, knowing that attempting magic outside of his herbal domain pains Yixing more than he likes to admit.

 

“You don’t have to–,”

 

“–Yeah, yeah, but I’m gonna. You owe me some Dong'an chicken after this, though.” Renjun leaves for a moment to search for the blanket the cat dragged around more often than not, and when he comes back, Yixing is geared up to repeat the spell he’d memorized less than three seconds ago. Which is not something Renjun would typically condone with spells, but he can allow it for this case. He lets a lot of things slide with Yixing.

 

“Thank you, JunJun.” He takes the blanket and holds it in his hands loosely, letting the faint aura of the cat that had begun to attach itself to the blanket lend it’s unique touch to the spell. Renjun watches with concern as Yixing’s eyebrows furrow, and he wishes Jeno was here to take some of Yixing’s pain away. He mouths the words quickly, rushed, and his eyes snap open with a glazed look, darting over an invisible map that only he can see.

 

“It looks like the cat’s still in town,” Yixing mumbles, “over on the east side. Close to the school.” His eyes clear and he puts a hand down on the table to steady himself as he blinks the dizziness away. Renjun squeezes Yixing in a tight hug, whispering a thank you in rushed Mandarin before sprinting out the door.

 

The best way to describe how he sprinted across town would be not at all. Renjun has no shortage of sass or witty intellect, but his athleticness is close to nonexistent. The two-mile jog to the east side of town leaves him distinctly out of breath, even though he took frequent breaks. It doesn’t occur to him at any point that he has no idea where to start searching until he’s got his hands on his knees in a residential neighborhood park, more or less lost.

 

He falls down and lays on the ground, spread out like a starfish as he attempts to figure out how to find the cat in the whole east side. He wonders if he could try to summon a few spirits to help cover more ground, but then he realizes they wouldn’t have enough awareness to be able to search for a cat. It’s hard enough to get enough information out of them to determine the past, present, and future. He doesn’t think they have the capacity to search for something new.

 

“I’m never gonna find it,” he whispers to the sky, watching glumly as the clouds passed by. He doesn’t know how long he lies there, trying to figure out the places a cat might go to hide, but he hears people start coming closer through the whispers of the ground. He listens more closely.

 

“– bad though,” a voice whines, and it sounds familiar to Renjun, but the ground eats up the tone and leaves him with only a vague hint of a memory.

 

“This wouldn’t be an issue if you hadn’t managed to get injured fighting a raccoon. Why did you even do that?” a second voice asks incredulously.

 

“He was being an asshole, duh.” Renjun furrows his eyebrows. A raccoon? How was it being an asshole?

 

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard. You were a cat, there was no way you could understand the raccoon.” Renjun’s thoughts freeze when he hears that. A shapeshifter? In this town?

 

“I didn’t need to, its actions said everything. Besides, you weren’t much better. You just flew around and cawed while I got shredded.”

 

“Maybe you shouldn’t have shifted into a cat at all, don’t you think? Then you wouldn’t have been stuck as one for five days while you healed,” the second voice snorts, and Renjun gets a sinking feeling in his stomach. There are too many coincidences piling up. Sarago is on the way to Sicheng’s place, after all.

 

“But he was so nice, Jaemin!” He stills. Jaemin. And if he was putting the puzzle together correctly, that meant the other person was Chenle. “He was always asking me if I was okay with whatever he was doing and he took care of my injuries, but I wish I didn’t have to leave so suddenly.”

 

“There wasn’t any way around it, Lele.” No doubt now, he thinks dazedly. More than the fact that Chenle and Jaemin are shapeshifters, Renjun is stunned that he’d been taking care of Chenle – Chenle, of all people – like a baby for the past five days. “You were gonna turn back into a human the moment your body got rid of the last of the shock, and you probably would’ve freaked him out more if he found you instead of the cat he’d been taking care of.”

 

“Did you know Renjun’s a witch, Jaemin?”

 

“He never really struck me as one. Did you find out what kind from your little stunt?”

 

“I only know Yixing is really intense about herbs and plants. Renjun never really casted any spells.” Renjun pushes himself up and follows the whispers of the ground to the bench that Jaemin and Chenle are sitting on.

 

“He didn’t use any spells on me when I was hurt, so maybe–,”

 

“–I didn’t use any spells because I thought you were actually a cat,” Renjun interjects, feeling a strange satisfaction that Chenle and Jaemin startle and whip their heads around to look at him. “Spells for humans don’t translate well to animals, but if I’d known you were a shapeshifter, I could’ve healed you back at the supermarket.” He feels bad, only the slightest bit, when he sees the guilty look on Chenle’s face.

 

“Renjun, I’m sorry–,”

 

“–What are you sorry about?” he asks, frowning. Chenle winces and his eyes flicker to the healing scratches on Renjun’s arms. “Oh. That. It’s not a big deal,” Renjun says, shrugging, although it warms his soul that Chenle cares even a little. “You guys chose a really bad place to talk about your abilities though.”

 

“What do you mean?” Jaemin finally asks, getting around his shock. Renjun waves at the trees around them.

 

“Birch trees are the gossipiest bunch. You can’t keep a secret around them because they simply have to tell everyone everything.” Chenle tilts his head curiously.

 

“How do you know that?”

 

“Yixing’s my brother, of course I know that.” He offers the two of them a wry smile. “Hey Chenle, you wanted to see my magic?” Renjun points to a dead flower by the foot of the bench and mouths a spell, focusing on the words he’d memorized from his grimoire ages ago. Within seconds of the last word, the plant blooms again, regaining the vivid colors of its prime. He notices with pride that Chenle and Jaemin’s expressions are full of wonder.

 

“I’ve gotta go now, but Chenle?” He makes a questioning sound and tilts his head. Renjun starts walking backward. “You’re pretty cute as a cat.” He spins around and walks faster, feeling thoroughly embarrassed. As he makes his escape, he hears Jaemin cooing at Chenle’s red ears, and he refuses the urge to turn around and take a look. He’s sure he looks adorable though.

 

When Renjun arrives home well before 8 o’clock and cat-less, Yixing thinks better than to question him.

 

The half moon rite, in Renjun’s personal opinion, is the most boring part of being a necromancer. He doesn’t even get to raise the skeletons of the dead like Taeil, he thinks glumly as he sets out his set of lapis lazuli stones in a circle around the grave he’d chosen for this half moon. All he can do is create pseudo-hauntings, which, disclaimer, is the lamest way to use necromancy. But divination is his strongest affinity, so he’s stuck with old ladies from 1873 who don’t have any useful information about the future to share. He pulls out a small statue of a man from his bag and sets it inside the ring of stones, stepping out of it so that the spirit won’t have the chance to inspirit him instead of the statue. None of the ghosts he chose had harmful intentions since Yixing made him research the occupant of each grave he used, but it didn’t mean he wanted a spirit controlling his movements.

 

Although what a Japanese man who died of food poisoning would want to inspirit him for, he has no clue. Nakamoto Yuta has no reason to be brought back, and yet Renjun is doing it anyway.

 

The half moon rite consists of about six different chants he has to mutter one by one, repeating all the previous chants when he begins a new one, to summon a spirit to ask whether it knows anything about the future. It’s mind-numbing and exhausting, but at this point he’s a pro at not thinking very hard about the words and getting through it. He’d also edited the spells a little to make them shorter, but there’s no way he would ever tell Yixing he’d done that. He would probably try to gut him alive for trying something that dangerous – a messy spell could cost your life in necromancy. It’s not like Renjun doesn’t know that, but Yixing doesn’t fully understand the monotony of repeating a spell six times.

 

Spoiler alert: the spirits usually don’t know anything. They’re either too far back in the past to be helpful or too stuck in their own heads to pay attention to the present. The only useful spirits Renjun has met were only able to tell him the lunch at school the next day.

 

Nakamoto Yuta is a relatively average person. Not very tall, not noticeably short, no prominent nose or ears. Renjun is a little biased, but he really does look like he died in his early twenties. There’s still a youthful liveliness to his smile that the older spirits, the ones who’ve been dead for a while, lack.

 

“You know, I don’t understand why necromancers always have to examine a spirit like they’re scientists,” Yuta drawls, shaking Renjun out of his thoughts. He blinks and rubs his thigh, a nervous habit when he gets caught off-guard.

 

“It’s to get a basic profile of the spirit,” he recites automatically, “but I just do it because it’s fun to see how you match up with your last living record.” He realizes a little late that it sounds a little insensitive. He’s never actually had a conversation with a spirit.

 

Yuta shakes his head. “Necromancers were always the weirdos.” Renjun snorts.

 

“Not like you were better as an elementalist. How much more basic can you get?” he sneers, satisfied by the indignant scowl that darkens Yuta’s shining face. “That’s not important anymore though,” he says dismissively, “my interest is in what you might know.”

 

“I know a lot of things, but why should I tell you anything?” Yuta’s obviously sulking, what with his crossed arms and frown, but Renjun has more pressing needs, like finishing the calculus homework he’d ignored in favor of searching for the cat – Chenle, he reminds himself.

 

“Listen, I’m a divination necromancer, so I don’t really care to keep you around like this,” he gestures at the setup, “unless you have something important to say. So you can either spill your metaphorically-verbal guts or you can go back to whatever spirits do. It’s not exactly a huge loss to me.” He’s had plenty of experience with stubborn spirits, and so he’s expecting Yuta’s posture loosening and his frown slackening.

 

“Ugh, fine, you’re such a mood killer.” He squints at him for a minute, floating a little further down to get closer to Renjun’s eye level. He feels slightly insulted for that; he’s not nearly that short. “This is so depressing,” Yuta comments mildly, and Renjun frowns. “No shut up, you can’t break my concentration.” A tense few seconds of silence results in a satisfied hum from Yuta while he continues to wallow in confusion. Another point about spirits he hates is they can never get straight to the point.

 

“So?” he prompts. Yuta rests his chin in his hand and smiles cheekily.

 

“So. You seem to be quite the romantic. ‘You’re pretty cute as a cat,’” he teases. Renjun resists the urge to let his ears turn red and Yuta giggles. “What? I have to get an idea of your past to see your fate. But I don’t think you really need me to figure out what you have to do, hm?”

 

“Shouldn’t you be trying to tell me something important to the future?” Renjun snaps defensively.

 

Yuta sobers a little. “Isn’t your happiness something important?” He doesn’t wait for Renjun to respond or even think about it. “You’re a smart person, obviously. You haven’t given me your name, you’ve set up a solid protection, and you keep your heart hidden. But you’re pretty shitty at taking care of your emotions. That’ll bite you in the ass if you don’t fix it.”

 

If Yuta wasn’t already dead, Renjun’s glare would’ve killed him.

 

“I know how seeing the future can drive you crazy,” Yuta states simply, as if sensing his irritation. “So I’m sorry for being cryptic. But all I can do is push you in the right direction. Don’t falter in your path, because this is the happiest one for you.” Renjun huffs, but he understands. There’s a lot of mental pressure that comes with knowing the future even despite its fluidity.

 

“So you’re saying I should shoot my shot?”

 

“Is that what the kids say these days?” Yuta asks, tilting his head to the side blankly. Renjun lets out a suffering sigh. “Well, I am trying to say to go get him. He does look pretty cute, even as a human.”

 

“And that’s my cue,” Renjun says, beginning the final chant. Yuta’s smile emblazons itself for a split second in the air as he wavers out of sight, and Renjun thinks he actually misses it a little. It had been a small comfort during their conversation.

 

“How was the rite?” Yixing asks when Renjun drags himself into the house, brushing aside a wide-leafed plant Yixing had been growing for the flowers it would bloom.

 

“Yuta was a pain in the ass,” he mumbles, falling face first onto the couch. Yixing snorts and throws a pillow on his head, ignoring his muffled whine. He sits up, staring right at Yixing with sudden determination.

 

“Yixing, I’ve gotta shoot my shot.”

 

His brother blinks. “You’ve gotta what?”

 

“I’ve gotta shoot my shot,” he repeats, “go get ‘em.” Yixing shifts his eyes nervously.

 

“I have no idea what you’re saying.”

 

“I’ve gotta ask Chenle out on a date!”

 

Yixing stares at him. He blinks: once, twice, three times in silence.

 

“You mean pretty boy who you’ve never had the balls to talk to? I never knew his name was Chenle.”

 

Renjun groans and stuffs his head into the pillow Yixing had thrown. “You’re useless.”

 

Realistically, asking Chenle out isn’t hard. He’s easily amused, is about two times more honest than Jeno, which is saying quite a bit, and if sources are to be trusted, he’s more than likely to return his feelings. But Renjun’s the king of overthinking, has a whole kingdom in his room and two citizens to his name, so nothing is ever easy.

 

Jeno eventually gets tired of him and ropes Donghyuck into their plans, to the latter’s excitement and Renjun’s dismay.

 

Now, Renjun doesn’t have anything against Donghyuck, per se, but the fae has a flighty nature and a more than a little volatile personality. Which meant any type of constructive criticism went right over his head and made him mad that you criticized him at all. So when he slaps a detailed diagram on his desk, fully plotted and small maps included, Renjun doesn’t have the heart to tell him that this was quite possibly the worst plan to ask Chenle out.

 

“Halloween is coming up,” Donghyuck announces dramatically, stabbing a finger directly at the title of the diagram. “So you’re gonna do some fancy magic and blow the socks off of your crush.” At least he didn’t say his name, Renjun thinks defeatedly. Maybe there was some good left in the world.

 

Donghyuck’s novel plan includes roping in Jaemin and Jisung to drag Jisung into a haunted house attraction at the theme park, where the two of them would conveniently ditch Chenle and Renjun would be conveniently nearby. The first problem is that Chenle isn’t even slightly scared of haunted houses. The second is that Chenle isn’t stupid; he’d know something was up if Jaemin and Jisung ditch him. The third problem is that, even if everything else goes to plan, Renjun is the worst person to talk to in an uncomfortable setting, which is exactly what meeting your crush in a haunted house would be. Uncomfortable.

 

Which means that it’s now his number one priority to find any other way to ask Chenle out before Halloween.

 

He gets hit with a stroke of brilliance, in his own humble opinion, when he and Jeno are walking through the same park he’d overheard Jaemin and Chenle in. He sees a dropping, shriveled flower in the midst of others in full bloom, and he remembers Chenle’s surprise when he revived the flower that day. It had been a simple trick, one he’d learned within days of learning he had the abilities for necromancy, but it had intrigued him so much.

 

“Jeno.” He tugged in his backpack to get him to stop walking.

 

“Hm?”

 

“What if I said fuck it to Hyuck’s plan and asked Chenle out by reviving a bunch of flowers to spell ‘go out with me’?”

 

“Junnie, at this point, I don’t care how you ask him out. I just want you to do it.” Renjun scowls and hits him on the back of the head with the folder in his hands.

 

“I hate you.”

 

“You love me,” Jeno says through his laughter. “Do you want my help in getting the flowers together?”

 

“Nah, Yixing can accelerate their growth with his magic, it’ll be fine. Where should I do it though?”

 

“Behind a supermarket.”

 

“I’ll revive you as a spirit so you never get to rest,” Renjun snarks, resuming walking.

 

“That doesn’t sound so bad?”

 

“Oh trust me, it’s awful.”

 

The next day, Renjun’s sitting in the park carefully planting the flowers Yixing had prepared yesterday, smiling softly at the drooping lavender petals and imagining them in full bloom. The pixie-wings are beautiful flowers even despite their poisonous properties, but that’s what Yixing had been for. A few shavings of a basilisk fang planted with the seed neutralized the flowers’ poison, and so Chenle wouldn’t accidentally get poisoned by Renjun’s romantic proposal, which would have been a real downer. He’d plant the dead flowers now and then hurry back here after school to get ready for when Jaemin brought Chenle toward him, and then, hopefully, get ready for a date later that week. But first he had to make sure the flowers weren’t tampered with by an unsuspecting human while he was gone. A quick protection spell to conceal this area of the park later, Renjun is gone.

 

Jeno has a smug smile on his face when Renjun enters the classroom.

 

“Don’t say anything,” Renjun hisses, dumping his backpack near his seat next to him.

 

“I wasn’t going to,” he replies primly, opening his notebook. “I’m just glad you stopped being a coward.”

 

“I wasn’t ever a coward, I just played it safe.”

 

“If you say so.”

 

He’s not a coward, absolutely not. It just so happens that he’s willing to fake an emergency to get out of his own plan to ask Chenle out. It also just so happens that Jeno is fully aware of his tendency to overthink at the last minute.

 

“You’re really bad at being emotional, huh?” Jeno asks, popping out of the trees and giving Renjun a mini heart attack in the middle of his pacing. He places a hand over his heart and exhales dramatically, only slightly overdoing his initial shock.

 

“Why can’t you just let me freak out in peace?”

 

“Because I can feel you from all the way across the park, that’s why. If it makes you feel better, Chenle feels just as nervous around you.” It really doesn’t help.

 

“That’s probably because he’s worried about me finding out he’s a shapeshifter,” Renjun mumbles glumly. Jeno tilts his head at him.

 

“He’s a shapeshifter? I thought Jaemin was the only one.”

 

“You knew Jaemin was a shapeshifter?”

 

“Well, yeah, he told me. He’s not very subtle about his feathers either.” Jeno shrugs his shoulders easily. Renjun slaps his forehead.

 

“Of course you would know Jaemin is a shapeshifter and not know about Chenle,” he snarks pointedly.

 

“My point is,” he says while smiling cheekily, “is that you don’t need to worry so much. It’ll be fine. Anyway, Jaemin is bringing Chenle, so you should get ready. Bye, good luck!” Renjun tries to listen for voices, and to his dismay, he could clearly hear Jaemin and Chenle’s laughter from where he stood. When he looked back to where Jeno had been standing, the only indication of his presence was a swaying of the bushes.

 

“– and then when I turned back around, he was gone!” The tell-tale pitch of Chenle’s voice made it obvious it was him.

 

“Yeah, Mark’s like that. He hates confrontations, so he likes to disappear whenever it might happen.” They come into view from behind the oak trees.

 

“I was trusting him to have my back though! I didn’t know he–,” Chenle cuts himself off when he sees Renjun standing in the clearing, awkwardly shifting from foot to foot. Renjun sees the tips of his ears turn red and his eyes dart away as quickly as when he’d seen him.

 

“Hey Chenle,” he starts uncertainly, pausing immediately after. Chenle turns to Jaemin, but just like Jeno had, he was gone. The sudden widening of Chenle’s eyes told Renjun he was well aware of Jaemin’s betrayal. “Uh.”

 

Chenle whipped his head back to Renjun and smiled weakly. “Sorry, you surprised me. I mean, not exactly a bad surprise,” he backtracked hastily, “but you did. Um. Surprise me.” This is going to be so cringey when Renjun pulls out of his memory later. He takes a deep breath to steady himself.

 

“I thought you’d like to see this new trick I’d come up with. I’ve had to perfect it a little, but I think it’s something worth your while.” Well, he hoped so. His immediate happiness depended on it. He makes sure Chenle is watching him before he starts the short spell he’d memorized last night, concentrating on each word to make sure he doesn’t mess any part of it up. He hadn’t been lying when he said he had to perfect it a little. Reviving over forty flowers wasn’t something he could do with a simple revival spell only meant for a maximum of five objects. When he finishes, he opens his eyes and smiles at the blooming pixie-wings on the ground, spelling out a simple question that had taken over a year for him to work up the courage to ask, and then he sees Chenle’s face.

 

He’s slack-jawed, staring at the flowers with disbelief and astonishment, mouthing the words “Will you go out with me?” to himself silently. Renjun suddenly feels even more anxious than before, because it’s one thing to ask and another thing to wait for an answer. As sad as it feels, he knows in the long run his emotional state won’t have a big impact on his life, but he wants them to work out.

 

“I know you’re probably still processing this, but I.” He stops, swallows to get rid of the dryness in his throat. “I thought that I’ve had enough of waiting.” Only took him a spirit summoning to figure it out. “So I decided it’s now or never. Zhong Chenle, it would make me really happy if you would agree to go on a date with me.”

 

Despite his stilted explanation, Chenle’s expression blooms, like the flowers had, into one of exalting happiness.

 

“You like me?” he asks, pointing to himself questioningly even as a smile spreads across his face. Renjun snorts and gives him a deadpan stare.

 

“No, Chenle, it was meant for Jisung. It just so happened to be you instead, so I improvised.” Chenle laughs, openly and exactly like the dolphin screech he lets out when he’s overwhelmingly happy. He jumps through the flowers to reach Renjun and hug him.

 

“I’d love to go on a date with you,” he says next to his ear, and Renjun can’t help the giddiness that overtakes him as he wraps his arms around Chenle in return.

**Author's Note:**

> [my twitter!](https://twitter.com/timelessidyll)   
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